Pipe supports have long been used with commercial pipelines which are supported on pipe racks. The primary purpose of the pipe support is to prevent the pipe from moving sideways, i.e. laterally to the pipe longitudinal centerline, on the pipe rack, but yet still allow the pipe to move longways, i.e. axially or longitudinally along the pipe's primary axis as the pipe expands and contracts. Such pipe expansion and contraction occurs primarily with temperature changes in the pipe. The axial change in dimensions often amounts to several inches. Thus, if the pipe were rigidly attached to the pipe rack, the longitudinal expansion and contraction of the pipe would cause structural failure or damage to either the pipeline or pipe rack or both. Hence, pipe supports have long been used to allow pipes to move with respect to the pipe rack in the axial direction of the pipe but not in a horizontal lateral direction with respect to the pipe.
Numerous problems with pipe supports have been addressed in the past. For example, see Hageman, D. W., U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,205 (June 15, 1976); Fountain, B. A., U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,474 (Oct. 14, 1969); Ericson, E. A., U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,543 (Jan. 13, 1981); Malloy, J. F., U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,927 (Apr. 25, 1967).
However, there is one problem which has not yet been addressed. That problem is how to perform maintenance, such as painting, on that part of the pipe in contact with the pipe support at any time the maintenance is desired to be done without removing the pipe from the pipe support. Lifting the heavy pipe from the pipe support, of course, requires heavy and expensive equipment. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a pipe support which allowed maintenance work to be performed on the pipe while the pipe support still supported the pipe and remain attached to the pipe rack support. The present invention achieves these and other advantages.